Environmentally sealed connector, housing therefor

ABSTRACT

Plug and socket housings of in-line cable assemblies providing terminal receiving channels disposed so that different size terminals are placed on a common horizontal center line. The housings permit two tiers of terminals to be housed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to plug and socket housing of cable assembliesand more particularly in a preferred embodiment to housings forenvironmentally sealed cable assemblies.

2. Description of the Prior Art

In prior art cable assemblies where the sockets and plugs carry severaldifferent sizes of terminals, a problem exists in forming housings,arranging primary locking fingers in terminal receiving channels,locking the locking fingers in the annular recess areas of the terminalswith pads disposed on a secondary locking bar. In forming a housing forholding large and small diameter terminals, a problem exists whenmolding such a housing. In housings where terminal receiving channelsfor small pins are disposed adjacent to one another, the moldingmaterial cools and shrinks evenly. But when a receiving channel forlarge diameter terminals is placed adjacent to a receiving channel forsmall terminals, the material between these two terminals do not cooland shrink at the same rate as the material between two small receivingchannels. Hence, during the molding process, steps are taken to causethe walls between the large receiving channel and a small receivingchannel to cool and shrink at the same rate that the walls between thesmall receiving terminals cool and shrink. To remedy this problem, thewall's thickness between a large and a small receiving channel isreduced to provide a thickness comparable to the thickness between apair of small receiving channels. A slot or "lighter" is formed toreduce the wall thickness. This slot prevents the material fromcollapsing between the terminals due to the fact that it cools slowerthan the materials between two small channels.

Another problem that exists in the prior art concerns the primarylocking fingers. The locking fingers are formed from resilient materialand arranged in the housing during the molding process. The fingers areused to lock the terminals in the housing by engaging an annular recessof the terminals. Since the diameter of the small terminals and thelarge terminals are different, the prior art housings provided space formounting the large terminals on different horizontal center lines fromthe center lines provided for small terminals. Because of this, thelocking fingers for the large and small terminals have differentheights.

To compensate for the different heights of the locking fingers of theprior art, the secondary locking bar carried pads of different heightsfor the large and small terminals. An approach that forms different sizepads on the locking bar was needed during the process of forming lockingbars.

In an effort to minimize the problem of molding different size pads forthe locking bars and forming different horizontal center lines for thelarge and small terminals, and to eliminate the need for providing"lighters", a search for various other housing structures was initiated.This search resulted in the improved cable assembly housing of thepresent invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns cable assembly housings forenvironmentally sealed cable assemblies. In a preferred embodiment,elongated squares rather than circular terminal receiving channels areformed in the housing in a manner that permits a common horizontalcenter line through large and small terminals. Also, all walls betweenterminal receiving channels are of like thickness, hence eliminating theneed for "lighters". Pads of even height are disposed on the locking barwhich permit effective environment sealing. A pair of handles isprovided on each locking bar for easy disassembly of the socket and plugif desired.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a plug and socket of a prior art,in-line cable assembly illustrative of circular terminal receivingchannels;

FIG. 2 is a partial cut-away view of a socket in FIG. 1 illustrative ofthe locking finger interaction with the annular recess of a terminal andof the region in which a "lighter" is needed;

FIG. 3A is a perspective view of a plug and socket of an in-line cableassembly illustrative of a square terminal receiving channel andconstructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3B is a perspective view of a set of alignment pads that aredisposed in the square receiving channels; and

FIG. 4 is a partial cut-away view of a socket of FIG. 3 illustrative ofthe locking finger interaction with the annular recess of a terminal andthe absence of "lighters".

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a plug housing 4 and a sockethousing 3 for an in-line prior art cable assembly 2. These housings areshown without terminals in order to illustrate the terminalarrangements.

Plug housing 4 is molded so as to house a double tier of mixed sizedterminals, small male terminals and large male terminals. Note that thereceiving channels for the large and small terminals 6 and 5,respectively, are on different center lines, A1 and D1 respectively.

Also note that the spacing between the vertical center lines B1 and C1of the adjacent large and small receiving channels is different from thespacing between the small receiving channels. Also "lighter" regions(LTH) 7 are provided between the adjacent large and small receivingchannels in order to promote even drying of the wall material during themolding process.

Note that the secondary locking bar (LB) 8 carries pads such that thelarge terminal locking fingers 6a are locked in place at the interface(E1) and the small terminals are locked in place with locking fingers 5aat the interface (F1).

With reference now to FIG. 2, a cut-away view of the prior art socketwhich shows a view of the "lighter" 7 used for reducing the thickness ofthe walls between the large terminal receiving channels 6 and smallterminal receiving channels 5. Also note that the locking fingers 6a forthe large terminal are off-set from the locking finger 5a for the smallterminals. A cavity 8a for the locking bar 8 of FIG. 1 is shownextending through the small and large receiving channels as well as the"lighter".

Also, a large female terminal 9 of FIG. 2 is illustrated to show how anannular recess 9a of the terminal interacts with large locking finger6a.

With reference now to FIG. 3a, there is shown a plug housing 12 andsocket housing 14 of an in-line cable assembly 10 of the presentinvention. In this embodiment, the large and small terminal receivingchannels 16 and 15, respectively, are essentially square in shape ratherthan circular. In order to maintain stability of the terminal in thechannels, alignment pads 14P are disposed as shown in FIG. 3B and arefixedly mounted to three sides of the square channel walls for holdingthe periphery of the terminals in alignment with the channels. Note thatthe horizontal center line for both the large and small receivingchannels A2 of FIG. 3A are in line. Also, the spacing between thevertical center lines for the large and small channels (B2) and (C2),respectively, are closer together than the comparable center lines inthe prior art assembly shown in FIG. 1. Also, the large and smalllocking fingers 16a and 15a, respectively, interface with the pads ofthe lock bar 18 along a single interface line (E2). Since no "lighters"are used, handles 18a are provided at the edges of the lock bar 18 toprovide a means for removal of lock bar 18 during disassembly of theterminal assembly.

With reference now to FIG. 4, note that the walls between the receivingchannels are substantially the same thickness. Also the alignment pads14P are shown extending the length of the receiving channels.

A female terminal 19 is disposed to show how a nib of the locking finger16a engages an annular recess 19a of the terminal.

The terminals are held in alignment in these square shaped channels 15and 16 by alignment pad 14P. The terminals are secondarily locked inplace by the lock bar 18 which is received in a centrally located cavity18b that extends between E2 and E2 of FIG. 3a.

Refer now to Table I which shows data that illustrates furtheradvantages of the housing arrangement of the present invention.

                  TABLE I                                                         ______________________________________                                                      Prior Art System                                                                         Present System                                       ______________________________________                                        Vertical Centerline Spacing                                                                   C1-C1        C2-C2                                                            3.96 mm      4.30 mm                                                          B1-C1        B2-C2                                                            5.72 mm      5.20 mm                                          Horizontal      A1-A1        A2-A2                                            Centerline Spacing                                                                            7.62 mm      7.70 mm                                                          D1-D1                                                                         6.30 mm                                                       Height          20.52 mm     18.50 mm                                         Width           32.26 mm     29.50 mm                                         ______________________________________                                    

Note that by using centerlines A2-A2 and C2-C2 in the present invention,the horizontal and vertical terminal spacing is increased but noadditional centerlines such as D1-D1, and F1 in the prior art is needed.Also note that the overall size of the present housings is smaller inheight and width when compared with the prior art housings forcomparable pins.

The terminal receiving channel arrangement of the present invention alsomakes for effectively disposing the cavity 18b between the double tierof pin terminals for receiving the secondary locking bar that can beinserted and removed from the environmentally sealed in-line plug andreceptacle using handles 18a.

I claim:
 1. A pair of molded housings of an in-line plug and socketconnector assembly for housing female terminals in the socket and maleterminals in the plug;wherein each of the male and female terminals hasan annular recess at a chosen position along a front shaft of theterminal for use in locking the terminal into the housing; wherein adiameter of a chosen number of male and female terminals differ from thediameter of the remainder of the plurality of male and female terminals;wherein each of the male and female terminals includes a pair ofcrimping arms at a rear end for crimping a wire to the terminal; whereinseveral mechanical locking means are used to lock the terminals in thehousings; wherein the plug housing is comprised of two molded sections,a front undivided cavity for receiving the socket and a rear cavity forreceiving the plurality of plug terminals; wherein the socket housing isa single molded section for housing the plurality of socket terminals;said pair of housings comprising:(a) a first elongated locking barreceiving cavity disposed at a central region of the rear section of theplug housing and extending the length of the rear section for theelongated terminal receiving channels extending substantially the lengthof the housing for receiving a secondary locking bar, the locking barbeing one of the several mechanical locking means for locking theterminals in the plug housing; (b) another elongated locking barreceiving cavity disposed at a central region of the single section ofthe socket housing and extending substantially the length of the housingfor receiving another secondary locking bar, the other locking bar beinganother of the several mechanical locking means for locking theterminals in the socket housing; (c) a plurality of substantially squarearch-shaped, three-sided terminal receiving channels extending thelength of the rear section of the plug housing and the length of thesingle section of the socket housing above and below said first and saidother lock bar receiving cavities of the plug and socket housingsrespectively, a horizontal center line of the plug and socket housingextending through a central axis of each terminal receiving channel, abottom of each of said channels having an opening that extends into anassociated one of said first or said other lock bar receiving cavities,each of said receiving channels having a first and a second chamber,said first chamber being used for enclosing a resilient locking fingercontaining a nib at one end and pivots from a pivot point on a frontwall of the second chamber, said nib on each of said locking fingersextending through the opening in the bottom of each of said chambersdisposed above said lock bar receiving cavity and in the top of saidchambers disposed above said lock bar receiving cavity for engaging theannular recess on the front shaft of a terminal inserted in each of saidchannels, said second chamber having four side walls for housing thepair of crimping arms of the terminal used to connect a wire andcovering insulation to the terminal; and (d) a terminal alignment paddisposed on each wall of said plurality of substantially square,arch-shaped, three-sided terminal receiving channels within said firstchamber for holding the terminal inserted in each of said channelsspaced equally apart from each wall of each first chambers and forholding the annular recess of each terminal fixedly against the nib ofsaid resilient locking finger engaging the annular recess.
 2. Saidhousings of claim 1 wherein a face of each of said alignment pads has aconcave-shape conforming substantially to the shape of the front shaftof each of the terminals.
 3. Said housings of claim 2 wherein saidresilient finger and said alignment pads are integrally molded in theplug and socket housings.
 4. Said housings of claim 3 wherein saidplurality of terminal receiving channels include a first group of saidchannels having a diameter different from the diameter of a second groupof said channels, said first and said group of channels.
 5. Saidhousings of claim 4 having a horizontal center line of the plug andsocket housing extending through a central axis of each of saidplurality of terminal receiving channels of said first and said secondgroup of said channels.